The key to success could be in setting unrealistic goals

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship development around the state. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.

To most people, keeping a full-time eight to five job is all that one needs in life. Buy a house, give a few bucks to some retirement plan, get married and have a family is the path that has been set for several American generations now. In fact, the majority of the people in this world are content with this life path as they are scared to make their own way.

However, if you are one of the few fed up with simply being content with what you have, it is time to start setting unrealistic expectations on your “bucket list.” Everett Bogue tested this theory of setting unrealistic goals for himself last year and shares his experience on the “Far Beyond the Stars.”

To be an entrepreneur, you, the business owner, already follow a different calling in life. Creating unrealistic goals should be at the fiber of your motivation to venture out on your own. However, with your business or potential business, do you really have “pie in the sky” goals set? Is your exit strategy your only goal in the business, if so, are you on track to reaching it?

Mr. Bogue has given some advice about how to start thinking about unrealistic goals in a way to help you achieve them either personally or in business:

• Start with mapping out your unrealistic ideal life. The more outrageous your dreams about life seem to be, the better.
• Set an unrealistic goal for yourself each year. For example, reach $1 million in sales, get product recognition in the Wall Street Journal, quit a job to start a business and earn enough income to sustain the household.
• Take away your own safety net when trying to accomplish your dreams. If the safety net is there, you will never obtain the pure motivation to “stop at nothing” when working toward your goals.
• The days of getting past those with the keys to your goals are gone. Make your way and open your own doors to achieving your dreams.
• Remind yourself regularly where you want to go as we tend to return to where we have been.
• Ignore nay-sayers. They are cancer to your dreams.
• If you are on your way to unrealistic goals and the path changes, be willing to chart a new course as needed.
• Read and learn from others who have achieved unrealistic goals. Lessons learned from others allow you to have a starting point.

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Stockman can be reached at [email protected]